KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast

Over the five years we've been recording KnockBack, we've intentionally gone out of our way not to talk about A New Hope. It's an especially peculiar decision, considering the first-ever episode of KnockBack is about The Empire Strikes Back, the film that would follow it. But we wanted to get 2023 into gear with something positive and fun, a topic we can bring a lot of energy to, and we've finally succumbed: It's time to chat about 1977's original Star Wars film...

For a good duration of the average childhood, you're dressed by your parents. You have very little choice or input, and certainly no financial means to make different decisions. But then, you start to care and exercise some agency: First a little bit, then a lot more. Before you know it, the way you present yourself to the world becomes a key component of your persona, something within your control...

Wait, what?! KnockBack is about the past! Well, that's typically true, but today we wanted to do something a little bit different. Why? Because beginning in 2023, KnockBack is going to change. And it begins with a month hiatus, while we retool. We wanted to explain where our heads are at with KnockBack, what the coming years hold, and deploy a new schedule that'll move the show to every-other-week beginning in January. Don't worry, though...

Red Hot Chili Peppers were cruising along for nearly a decade by the time their most famous record, 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, came to store shelves, the radio waves, and MTV. But it was a particular fusion of time, place, talent, and execution that propelled it to the stratosphere...

1973's Pink Floyd record The Dark Side of the Moon is easily one of the most famous albums of all-time, toting what is perhaps the most recognizable cover art ever concocted. Its 10 tracks (or 9, if you're old-school) tell a deeply human tale, celebrating the ups and downs of life with some of the most vivid and emotional rock lyrics ever constructed, all within a progressive rock framework that sounds like it was written and recorded yesterday. Of course, it wasn't...

In the history of rock, there are seminal records... and then there are the true cream of the crop. The Beatles' 1967 classic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is very much in the latter camp, a record so mind-bending and fresh that, 55 years later, it remains one of the most-revered albums ever recorded. And when we say recorded, we mean it in the old-fashion way: Using tape reels and decks without a semblance of computer assistance, which wouldn't have even been possible ast the time...

Truth be told, we (The Brothers Moriarty) went into The Cabin in the Woods totally blind. Unlike our other romps through horror fare this October, we've both never seen this film... at least until preparing to record this episode. While controversial in nature -- it is, after all, a Joss Whedon joint -- The Cabin in the Woods happens to be a well-respected horror film for one specific reason: It's really good...

1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the prototype for the teen-and-20-something slasher films that would fill up theater marquees and video store shelves for the next 40 years. All the hallmarks are there: A set of bold and clueless antagonists, a mysterious, abandoned, and rural locale, a series of situational justifications, a mask-wearing killer, and an iconic weapon...

Beginning in the 1960s, a string of psychological-driven horror movies were released to great fanfare. A seminal film that perfectly fits the mold is none other than 1976's The Omen, starring the beloved Gregory Peck. The Omen is unique, even amongst psychological thriller and horror fare, in that it's also political. Not deeply so; it's certainly not partisan in nature...

There's something about the time The Exorcist came to theaters, in that it almost certainly made the experience a hell of a lot more frightening than it would be today. When this film launched in December of 1973, one can imagine going to see it, being completely horrified, and then sitting at home. No internet, no cable TV, no phone to keep you busy. Just whatever's over the air and your landline, and hopefully no intrusive thoughts...